Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Matt Hepworth spoke with REINT Real Estate Institute of Northern Territory CEO Quentin Kilian

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Matt Hepworth spoke with REINT Real Estate Institute of Northern Territory CEO Quentin Kilian · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf on Mix one oh four
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: point nine thanks to Joyce Main Darwin.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Matt Hepworth filling in for Katie Wolf this morning. Well,
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: new data or a new report, I should say Revell's
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Darwin has the lowest rental vacancy rate in the nation.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: But is that the case?
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  Speaker 2: Well, to tell us more is the Real Estate Institute
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  Speaker 2: of the Northern Territory CEO Quentin Killian Quentin, good morning.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Oh sorry, Quentin, I'll press the right buttons.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: There, there we go. Try you again.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: Get at Quentin the magic of technology morning, Matte.
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  Speaker 2: I know I've seen Katie Wolf do that and I'm like,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: well You've got to do is press one button and
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  Speaker 2: now I'm on the other side and I didn't do it.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: You got one job and I didn't do it.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Hey, Quentin, we read this report in the Anten News
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: on Saturday with reports that the Darwin has the lowest
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: rental vacancy rate in the nation. But you don't reckon
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: that might be the case.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: Nah. Look, I struggle a little bit with the figures
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  Speaker 3: that SQM Data have put forward, only because I don't
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  Speaker 3: know how they gather their data. Are in the territory.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: They don't have representatives actually based here, so I'm assuming
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: that they would scrape other data sites and so forth,
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  Speaker 3: whereas our data is actually taken directly from our members
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  Speaker 3: with their properties under management, those available and in at
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  Speaker 3: the end of the March quarter, so basically the start
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  Speaker 3: of April, we had it at one point eight percent
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  Speaker 3: as a vacancy rate. Now, even with tightening in the market,
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  Speaker 3: which I know has been occurring over the last month,
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  Speaker 3: I can't honestly see it dropping from one point eight
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  Speaker 3: to zero point five percent in that quicker time. I
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  Speaker 3: would suspect that we're probably sitting around the one point
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  Speaker 3: five closer to one percent vacancy rate, which doesn't then
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  Speaker 3: put us as the tightest market in Australia.
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  Speaker 1: Where who would have that title?
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  Speaker 3: Look, I honestly don't know. You know, again, there are
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  Speaker 3: four or five different sets of data that go into
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  Speaker 3: the marketplace. The core Logic does data, real Estate dot
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  Speaker 3: Com do data, sqmdo data, and each one of them
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  Speaker 3: varies depending on how and where they collect their data from. Generally,
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  Speaker 3: I find that the best data sources are those produced
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  Speaker 3: by the institutes because they have direct access to their members.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah of course, is that part of the problem.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, we've got four or five different data sets
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  Speaker 2: coming out at different times, and each one of them
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  Speaker 2: use a different data So obviously, like I said, I
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  Speaker 2: thinker point oh five they're reporting you've got one point eight.
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  Speaker 2: I mean that is a big difference. Is it information
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  Speaker 2: and data overload? Is it too much and not enough
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  Speaker 2: reliable sources?
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  Speaker 3: Well, that is always a problem. Is that you've got
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  Speaker 3: competing interests in the marketplace that are looking to get
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  Speaker 3: some attention because they have products to selve, so they
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  Speaker 3: want people to buy their data, so they need to
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  Speaker 3: get press and they need to go to market with
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  Speaker 3: their data. And each one has a different way of
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  Speaker 3: collecting and analyzing and disseminating their data. You know, we
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  Speaker 3: have data that comes out on a quarterly basis. We
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  Speaker 3: also have data comes out on a monthly basis, and
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  Speaker 3: you know, I dare say soon it won't be long
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  Speaker 3: before two or three of these are trying to bring
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  Speaker 3: it out on a weekly basis. So yes, you've got
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  Speaker 3: to look at it not as an absolute but perhaps
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  Speaker 3: as a guide and use all the different data sets
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  Speaker 3: and say somewhere in there is the truth. You know,
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  Speaker 3: we would like to believe that our data sets are
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  Speaker 3: more comprehensive because they generally are closer to our membership
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  Speaker 3: base and therefore are relevant. But they'll pick a point
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  Speaker 3: in time, So we generally look at data that is gone.
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  Speaker 3: So when we look at our quarterly reports, we're looking
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  Speaker 3: at the previous quarter. All I can do is analyze
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  Speaker 3: anecdotally what is happening at that point in time. Now,
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  Speaker 3: perhaps you know, people like real estate dot Com and
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  Speaker 3: core Logic may be able to analyze again a point
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  Speaker 3: in time, but it's always going to be past data.
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  Speaker 1: I guess.
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  Speaker 2: Regardless of where the data is coming from, it it
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  Speaker 2: all does point to a low rental vacancy rate in
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  Speaker 2: Darwin at the moment.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely. Yes, Yeah, it's a very tight market.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Is there any chance of that changing anytime soon?
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  Speaker 2: I mean there's reports that you know, people are struggling
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  Speaker 2: to move to Darwin at the moment because they can't
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  Speaker 2: get a rental property. I mean some would argue, you know,
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  Speaker 2: for us here in the territory, it's a good problem
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  Speaker 2: to have, but it is probably a problem that needs
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  Speaker 2: to be addressed.
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  Speaker 3: Look, one of the easiest ways I guess to try
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  Speaker 3: and ease the rental situation is to try and bring
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  Speaker 3: more investors into the market, because theres more investors come
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  Speaker 3: in and buy up stock that is particularly in the
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  Speaker 3: unit market and turn that back into rental stock, that
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  Speaker 3: creates more of a rental stock availability and that will
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  Speaker 3: start to ease the market pressures. And one of the
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  Speaker 3: things standing in the way of investors or blocking them
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  Speaker 3: at the moment is the fact that the Attorney General
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  Speaker 3: still refuses to remove the modification notice on the Tenancy Act,
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  Speaker 3: the Residential Tenancy Act, which means that under the emergency legislation,
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  Speaker 3: it can take up to one hundred and twenty days
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  Speaker 3: for a landlord to remove a recouncil tenant from their property. Now,
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  Speaker 3: most landlords are going to look at something like that
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  Speaker 3: and say, well, I don't get that in Western Australia,
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  Speaker 3: and I don't get that in Queensland. In fact, I
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  Speaker 3: don't get it in any other state or territory in
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  Speaker 3: Australia because none of them have emergency legislation on their tenancies.
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  Speaker 3: So why would I go to a jurisdiction where there
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  Speaker 3: are roadblocks to me investing. So we need to bring
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  Speaker 3: investors into the market. We need to find ways to
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  Speaker 3: encourage them to come in here so that they buy
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  Speaker 3: that stock and turn it straight back into rent properties
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  Speaker 3: and create the opportunities for a greater broader stock availability.
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  Speaker 2: Quentin is one of the other issue has been that
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  Speaker 2: the government's been too slow in bringing forward land releases
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  Speaker 2: to fill this now shortage.
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  Speaker 3: Well, not necessarily, and I wouldn't like to target them
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  Speaker 3: and say that's true, because we do have land availability.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: We have land availability, particularly at North Crest. Whether that's
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  Speaker 3: been brought on in a timely fashion really depends on
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  Speaker 3: the developer. We do have new stock that is coming
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  Speaker 3: through in Zuccoli, so there is stock out there, it's
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  Speaker 3: just it's not quite ready to come to market. But
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  Speaker 3: even when it does, that doesn't necessarily fix the rental
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  Speaker 3: issue because the majority of the stock that's going to
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  Speaker 3: come to market for land is going to be for
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  Speaker 3: house and land packages, which is generally going to be
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  Speaker 3: in the norm first home buyers or owner occupiers that
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  Speaker 3: and you're looking at construction times as well, so it's
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  Speaker 3: not like an instant fixed situation where you can say,
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  Speaker 3: let's turn off and title a block of land and
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  Speaker 3: suddenly we fixed the problem. You've still got to build
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: something before you can rent it out. So that is
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  Speaker 3: not generally the fix issue here. We've got to keep
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  Speaker 3: in mind that the turnaround of the marketplace has come
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  Speaker 3: a heck of a lot quicker than any of us
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  Speaker 3: really expected, and in the middle of a pandemic which
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: nobody foresaw. You know, it was pretty much June last
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: year when we opened up the borders that we suddenly
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: saw a flutter of people coming in and pretty much
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: that took everybody on the hop and went, wow, Okay,
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  Speaker 3: we didn't expect this. I know.
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  Speaker 2: We've heard from some hospital and tourism businesses that say,
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  Speaker 2: all these people come into town at the moment, it's
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: to fill the gap in the workforce shortage that we've
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: got in it's it's seasonal as well, and there's reports
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: that some of those people then might migrate down south
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  Speaker 2: over the summer. Do you think that could then alleviate
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  Speaker 2: some of the pressure. If we see those workers chasing
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  Speaker 2: the winter tourism jobs up here and then move east
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  Speaker 2: in the summer, that'll alleviate some of the pressure.
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  Speaker 3: Look, it's possible, but you also got a factor in,
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  Speaker 3: are we creating permanent work jobs or permanent work jobs?
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  Speaker 3: That's a bit of an oxymoron, but permanent work in
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  Speaker 3: things like gas mining or soul or energy. You know,
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  Speaker 3: are we looking at a permanent workforce that we need
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  Speaker 3: and want in the territory, in which case, as we
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: sort of maybe see seasonal workers leaving, we might be
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  Speaker 3: backselling it with more permanent workforce, which is something that
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  Speaker 3: I'd like to see. I'd like to see a lot
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: more permanent workforce coming to town because we hopefully can
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: then convert those people across the purchasing Yeah, Quentin.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: I hope you don't mind.
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  Speaker 2: I've got a question here for you on the text
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  Speaker 2: line that says, Hi, Matt, can you ask Quentin why
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: real estate agents in some cases force people to do
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: bond cleans for their properties when NTCAT have ruled property
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  Speaker 2: does not require a clean to satisfying landlord for the
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: purpose of reletting, selling, or residing there themselves. So I
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  Speaker 2: guess the question is, are bond cleans professionally one's mandatory.
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  Speaker 3: But it's a lovely question, But I really don't get
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  Speaker 3: into answering individual situations because that's very unwise. Apart from
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  Speaker 3: the fact that I'm not a lawyer, I really don't
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: want to be in a position where I'm trying to
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  Speaker 3: address individual cases, which is obviously what's occurred here. Something's
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: occurred here, and that's what it's about. I would recommend
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  Speaker 3: that if a person does have a question or a
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  Speaker 3: query of that nature, that the first instance they take
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  Speaker 3: it up with the consumer affairs. Consumer affairs can help
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  Speaker 3: to guide them and advise them on their next steps.
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  Speaker 3: And of course in teacat is there for relevant and
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: appropriate action between parties that can't that have disputes of
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: any nature.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: Now that's all right, that was a great answer. Then
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: we completely understand that. Quentin, We'll have to leave it there.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for your time this morning.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: Thank you very much.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Bratt, that is Quentin Keeley and CEO of RII in
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: t